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Looking for tips to begin using the LindeX exchange.


es0 Torok
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In the past, I have always used the fast way to cash out my L$s.  But I've recently been wondering if it would be more beneficial to use the "limit sell" option.

 

But.. this is completely new to me and I am not sure what numbers I should look for.  Should I offer to sell at a higher or lower number than is listed at the top of the list.. how do I decide a good exchange rate to ask for?

I looked for a beginner guide to LindeX.. or a Lindex for Dummies type write-up, but found nothing.

Does anyone have insight or suggestions to offer?

 

es0 torok

(owner of LC Sculpts)

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Money sitting in your Linden dollar balance is wasted money, so there's no harm whatsoever in putting it for sale on the Lindex as a limit sale, look at the figures, how many Linden dollars are for sale at price x, go one level below the big bulk and let it sit there for a few days, you can cancel a limit sale with no penalty, if you want just let it sit there with the big bulk money, it will sell eventually, even if you want your money in a few minutes, limit sell can work in your favour.

 

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Waiting for that "right moment" to sell is very simply gambling and unless you are dealing with millions of Lindens, you wont see much difference one way or the other. The market goes up and down by fractions of a cent...not dollars.

As Ciaran said however, Lindens sitting in your account is a waste.

One point I would like to make is to get a PayPal debit card.  It gets you faster access to your funds.  Speed has value too.

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es0 Torok wrote:

Thanks! That helps a lot. 

I wonder if there are people that "play the LindeX" market...

There are indeed, but you need a lot of Linden dollars to make it work, and I mean a lot, the spread doesn't work for smaller amounts, and by smaller amounts I'm not talking peanuts.

I usually limit sell my Linden dollars for one price point above the big bulk sell rate if I want it quickly, you will get a better rate than with a market sell, you can actually play about with this without committing to a sell, just type the numbers in.

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The best price you can get now is 1 dollar for 248 L$. This is a fixed price for more then a half year now. It usually takes 2 or 3 days before your linden dollar offer is taken by someone. Sometimes (mainly in weekends) it goes faster, and you can sell for that price within a day.

You can see a pattern. The L$ is often stable for a very long time, for a year or a year and a half or so. Then something happens (something at LL or something at the financial markets worldwide) Then the L$ is unstable for a while. Till about a year ago the price has been stable for a very long time at 258. Then for a few weeks the Lindex is flooded by linden dollars. Many people want to sell and then you see the value of the L$ decline for a periode. Last time when it happende prices down till about 270 per usd. After a few crazy weeks, the available L$ at the market start to shrink again, and the prices go up again. It takes another few weeks, where the prices slowly rise up again more and more. And then it stabelizes again. Till a point where LL decided that the linden dollar is at a good rate, and then they keep it there, by offering additional L$ when the demands for L$ gets higher then the L$ that are offered by residents.

 

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It's normally like a snowball effect, something triggers a sudden drop in the value of the L$, rumours start flying around that the currency is crashing .Some people start panic selling in case SL suddenly goes bye bye whilst others start buying as they know or assume that things will settle down and they can make a quick profit from the panic.

Lindex is incredibly stable today compared to in the past. When I started using it in 2005 it really was allot more unstable and the value used to fluctuate allot, It really paid off to leave any spare L$ that you didn't want to cash out spread out across multiple exchange rates so when the market hiccuped, as it often did you could benefit from selling at a better rate. It really paid off to play the market back then and it was fun, like a little trading mini game.

Nowadays I can't even be bothered to sell at 248 as it can take 4 or 5 days sometimes. Everything goes at 249 for an almost instant sale.

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As others have said - it's been stable at 248 for ages, which usually takes 2-3 days to sell. I just convert a fixed amount to $US every day or two (commission is a % so amount doesn't matter) then cash out to paypal when US$ balance reaches (a) the maximum I'm willing to keep in SL, and (b) an amount at which the fee is a trivial percentage (there's a $US1 fee per transaction).

In theory I could sell at 249 for speed if it was close to cashout day, but in practice i never bother, since I like keeping one trade in limbo for a couple of days, just in case i want to cancel it if I suddenly need cash for some large expense in SL.

Price is too stable for any trading, unless something causes a bit of a panic either way. Some people did pretty well out of the "LL sacks a heap of staff" rate drop in (?) 2010.

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I do it exactly like Zanora -- when my balance gets to X amount, I sell at 248 -- that is a round number and makes it easy to keep track of how much I have cashed out in a month. And I can project how much I will make that month by checking how much I have made in, say, a week. I don't pay attention to how long it takes to sell, because a few days doesn't matter to me.

 

ETA I just checked, and my order is usually sold by the next day, occasionally 2.

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you cant currency trade  / speculate on the Lindex.  As has been said, it stays at 248 constantly.  LL manipulates the currency to stay right at 248 for the longest time. 

I am not sure why ppl wait and put their price at the huge bulge of 248 and wait days unless they use the days it takes to complete the trade as a back out. 

Even at 100,000L exchange, the 1L means a $1.62 difference.  Big whoop.  (Made figure accurate for Zanara)

I completely liquidate my SL account as soon as my account reach about $27000L (thats $100US).  I set it at the $L higher than the big bulge - this is normally at $249.  My currency exchanges in about 2 minutes or less.   Then I immediately remove it from my US account to my paypal - this process takes LL about 3 days.

I do this because I dont trust how LL designs and operates their systems... We saw this week why I dont trust LL to hold too much of my REAL earned $.  $100US is the maximum risk for me.

When I liquidate each cycle I bring it to about 100L because I know SL sales will fill up my account pretty quick.

 

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As Toy said, the difference between 248 and 249 is pretty much negligible. I would rather turn my L$ into USD as quickly as possible. I've felt this way since the end of Mark Kingdon's days when I lost confidence in SL's sustainability

When SL closes I see 1 of 2 things happening.

1. SL will vanish, no notice period. all L$ and content on your account will be inaccessible including any unsold L$ on Lindex. 

2 LL announce that SL is closeing. They give us a notice period. Currency immedately crashes as everyone tries to sell. The minute that annoucement is made the L$ becomes worthless, Lindex will fail.

Both of these scenarios result in the instant devaluing of any L$. So I would rather turn these in to USD and get them sent to pay pal asap, i'm too paranoid to leave large sums of L$ in-world or sat on Lindex. 

 

 

 

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My experience is that you can use the apparently speculative Lindex to get a bit better deal than you would get from an instant transaction, but it isn't really a significant difference. What's 5L$ in 250 L$?

If my tier was due on the Monday, I can see a slight advantage in having a deal open over the weekend, but if something went wrong--maybe somebody puts a backhoe through my internet connection--the troubles build up fast.

I don;'t know what the big estates do, taking in rental in L$ and paying thousands of USD every month. I am not at all sure the "market" is a real market, and I wouldn't be surprised if, in the past, it depended on the cash-rich in-world gambling. Any market needs people willing to buy and sell, including some speculation. There's no sign of speculation: the Lindens have set an exchange rate with the US$, just as currencies were traded 50 years ago. 

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Ok, if I understand this correctly.. The market is stuck at 248 because most people are using the 248 exchange rate when selling. It seems to me that very few people here are willing to go for the 247 or 246. What if for one week, people here were to go with the 246 instead of their 248 comfort rate? Would /Could that impact the LindeX?

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No, it is stuck at 248 because LL wants the rate to be at 248.

When I sell my lindens for 247 per dollar, this means the buyer is getting less L$ for his us dollar. They won't buy my less linden dollar as long as LL keeps flooding the market with cheaper L$ then mine. And that is what is happening. When the demand for L$ is higher then the L$ offered by residents, without intervention of LL the price of the L$ would be higher for the buyer. Since LL want the L$ to have a certain fixed value, they just 'print' new L$ that they offer at the current market rate.

 

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es0 Torok wrote:

Ok, if I understand this correctly.. The market is stuck at 248 because most people are using the 248 exchange rate when selling. It seems to me that very few people here are willing to go for the 247 or 246. What if for one week, people here were to go with the 246 instead of their 248 comfort rate? Would /Could that impact the LindeX?

Its mainly stuck at 248 because - as I understand it - LL places a ton of their own Lindens on the exchange at this price to keep the currency rate stuck just around 248.  Its not at 248 for all this time because the SL Residents all agreed to this price.  Most of that bulge of Lindens at 248 is LL's.  They are manipulating the currency and they can because they are by far the largest holder of Lindens - the King of Institutional Currency Holders.

 

 

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100,000 / 249 = $401.61

100,000 / 248 = $403.23

$1L difference to way 3 days for a payout vs 2 minutes = ($403.23 - $401.61 =  $1.62

That math is simple and I will take my money in a couple minutes for the 0.4% penalty

Not sure what math you thought someone got wrong.  I was just rough guess $3.  Less than $2 makes it even less sense to wait 3 days to exchange cash because they cant decide if they might need the money they are trying to exchange afterall.

 

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I reached the same conclusions as Toy, or to put it another way...

I agree with Toy!!! - Not often I say that.

Generally I need the money fast and there usually isnt much money to be made by trying to play the market. 

I also have a Paypal Debit Card and it is soooo useful if like me you often need your money in a hurry.  

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Its a nice Tip of the Day ..... IF your are an American.

I believe since 2009, PayPal does not offer the Debit Card service to non-Amercians.  Here is a clip from the PayPal User Agreement form I just got from the site...

Availability. The PayPal Debit Card is no longer available to PayPal Account holders in Canada. This Agreement applies to current PayPal Debit Card (“Debit Card”) holders

I am sure this applies to all countries outside the USA.

But the benefit for me as a Canadian is that all my profits from LL comes into my PayPal's Amercian account - not my Canadian account.  So since I do a lot of online shopping from Amercian oinline retailers, I dont have to pay a currency exchange fee since I can pay the American retailer from my American account.  :)

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